Tag: Golfweek True Blue Amateur

Pontus Nyholm closes out Golfweek True Blue title to start an unusual fall season

Pontus Nyholm had posted one of those, an opening 8-under 64, on Sunday on the strength of his wedge game. He won with a closing 66.

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. — Normally, the winner gets to pick the meal in the Campbell huddle. There was indeed a Campbell huddle this week at the Golfweek True Blue Amateur, albeit an unofficial one as six Camels competed as individuals only.

As it turns out, Pontus Nyholm will probably pick up a decidedly unfancy bite to eat at McDonalds on the drive back home to campus, mostly because Wednesday morning team workouts are going to roll around early. While it’s important to savor a win, it’s not always an easy thing to do as a college student.

“Tomorrow is workouts, 7 o’clock in the morning, then we’ll have school then it’s practice,” said Nyholm. “You don’t really have time to.”

True Blue got decidedly more difficult as the week went on. The course dried out after being saturated in a downpour just days before the tournament. Nyholm found it difficult to gauge distances in a swirling wind on Tuesday. Those conditions made the low numbers more scarce.

Scores: Golfweek True Blue Amateur

Nyholm had posted one of those, an opening 8-under 64, on Sunday on the strength of his wedge game. He followed with 71 in the second round before posting a closing 66 to reach 15 under and close out a two-shot victory over South Carolina freshman Rafe Reynolds.

“It was nice to play an event as an actual college player,” said Reynolds.” I was able to play a few events this summer. We have a really solid team so I wanted to make sure I got to play, at least a little bit, this fall.”

With his five Campbell teammates watching from just off the 18th green, Nyholm holed a 20-footer for birdie to an extreme front pin. Things had started slowly for the Swede on Tuesday morning, to the tune of two bogeys in his opening five holes.

Nyholm hit a 3-wood to 3 feet from 275 yards out on the par-5 10th hole and kept it going from there.

“That was kind of the turning point for me,” he said.

It’s a roughly three-hour drive back home to the Campbell campus, and Nyholm will make it along with four of his teammates in a well-loved Chevy Impala. The men might struggle to find a place for the trophy, considering how packed the car was coming down.

Campbell isn’t able to compete as a team this fall, which is a spot many universities find themselves in. Instead, they created a makeshift fall schedule and plan to travel together. The Golfweek True Blue Amateur was just the first stop.

Despite the victory, Nyholm still named some problem areas in his game. He planned to work on his driving, which he called “not good enough,” and thought his putting needed a bit of attention, too. Then of course there was the workout that awaited. It will be a little easier to be cheery about that.

“I’ll obviously going to feel better walking into workouts tomorrow at 7 o’clock than I usually do,” he reasoned.

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Louis Lambert turns it around at True Blue as Guilford teammates cut the big numbers

It’s a little bit different look for the Quakers this week with the Golfweek True Blue Amateur field spanning all Divisions.

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. – Nothing derails a round quite like a big number. This lesson has been a pseudo-introduction to college golf for four Guilford freshmen.

It’s not a team outing, but five Guilford players are in the Golfweek True Blue Amateur field this week. Senior Louis Lambert is out front, in a tie for 10th at True Blue Golf Course after rounds of 73-66, and with the four new players learning the ropes. It’s a little different look for the Quakers this week with the field spanning all Divisions. Guilford competes at the NCAA Division III level.

“Especially for the freshmen, this is kind of their first ‘college’ tournament,” Lambert said. “… Playing with people that play for Alabama, South Carolina, we don’t really get that. It’s a great experience.”

Lambert, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, had the most drastic turnaround. As the golf course dried out after a mid-week deluge, Lambert found it easier to score. He traded out his driver for a 2-iron off the tee here and there.

“I shot 73 yesterday and I saw I was tied for 40th and that didn’t really sit well with me,” Lambert said of a significant climb up the leaderboard courtesy of his second-round 66.

Scores: Golfweek True Blue Amateur

Lambert had six birdies and no errors.

Three years isn’t much of an age difference in college, but the experience level from a senior to a freshman can be vastly different. Lambert has taken on something of a leadership role this week. After the opening round, he talked about eliminating big numbers. Every Guilford freshman came in with a lower number on Monday.

“I talked to them a lot about avoiding the big numbers, trying to stay away from the doubles when possible,” he said. “No doubles on the card from anybody on our team today.”

Lambert is a sports management major at Guilford. There’s potentially a fifth year of college golf in the cards, considering that the NCAA made that an option after the spring season was canceled due to COVID. A fifth year, he recognizes, would be the best option should he decide to turn professional.

It would also extend the leadership for his team. He’s one of four seniors in the lineup this year, along with the four freshmen. After Lambert’s 66 on Monday, the next-best Guilford score came from Sam Davidson, who had a 71.

Thanks to COVID, Lambert hasn’t competed since March, when the spring season was canceled. Rounds have been sparse the past month, but that was deliberate.

Sometimes it takes a hard reset to change course in this game. Feeling some frustration about how he was playing, Lambert put the clubs away. He thinks he played two 18-hole rounds over the past month and hit the range a handful of times.

He started practicing for this event roughly five days ago.

“Maybe sometimes that’s what you need, I guess,” he said.

Truly, it seems to have left Lambert refreshed. He’ll enter the final round five shots behind Rafe Reynolds, who plays for South Carolina. Reynolds also didn’t make a bogey on Monday, bringing in a 65 to take a one-shot lead over a group of men at 9 under. That includes Campbell’s Pontus Nyholm, Old Dominion’s Gustav Fransson, College of Charleston’s Hunter Dunagan and Charleston Southern’s Jake Carter.

Nyholm was the pace-setter on Sunday, when he said his wedges were dialed in. He set up birdie putts and he converted them.

He finds himself in familiar territory entering the final round a shot off the lead and in the final group. He played three Swedish Golf Tour events over the summer and contended.

“No matter what, you have to play good on the final day,” he said.

Something says a shoot-out is coming.

Pontus Nyholm’s 64 at True Blue leads an unofficial, yet memorable, Campbell charge

There’s no team leaderboard at the Golfweek True Blue Amateur, but Campbell could easily field a team score if it needed to.

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. – An informal football game broke out in the parking lot Sunday at True Blue Golf Club. It was a good way for five of the six Campbell players in the field to get the energy out before piling in a weathered grey Chevy Impala to head back to their rental for the night.

It’s a tight fit in the battered four-door with the crack over the passenger-side window, so efficient packing was key.

“She’s packed pretty full at the moment,” said Josh Hetherington, the driver, “and I’m surprised we even made it without any hiccups.”

There’s no team leaderboard at the Golfweek True Blue Amateur, but Campbell could easily field a team score if allowed to. Only College of Charleston and George Mason have more men in the 91-player amateur field this week (with Queens University of Charlotte also fielding six).

Scores: Golfweek True Blue Amateur

The Camels didn’t even play a practice round at True Blue, but they’ve all seen it before in college events. The three-hour drive from Buies Creek, North Carolina, was punctuated only with a stop at McDonald’s. Clubs were crammed in the car with five bodies.

It’s pretty close to normal in the Campbell camp, minus coach John Crooks’s presence.

“And we have to pay for everything ourselves,” junior Pontus Nyholm added.

Nyholm was the star of the day on Sunday, picking his spots and lasering his wedges to an 8-under 64 that gave him the solo lead over Jake Carter, a Ladson, South Carolina, native who plays on the Charleston Southern roster.

“I was playing kind of aggressive with the fairways being so wet, no roll, you kind of have to hit driver to get close,” Nyholm said of a soggy True Blue that has endured upwards of 10 inches of rain in the past few days.

Nyholm hung around campus for a few weeks after the spring season was canceled because of COVID, but ultimately flew home to Sweden for the bulk of the summer. He played three events on the Swedish Golf Tour. As a member of the Swedish National Team, he was able to gain entry as a wild card.

Courtesy of his position in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (Nyholm currently checks in at No. 51), he would have gained entry into the U.S. Amateur last month. He led the registration deadline pass thinking he wouldn’t be able to travel to the U.S. to play only to see travel restrictions later lifted.

He still feels lucky to have been able to play the professional events in Sweden.

Nyholm spent the day trying to get it to 100 meters, the sweet spot for a little 50-degree wedge shot that set up several birdies. Nyholm had seven of those on Sunday, plus an eagle at the par-5 ninth.

His 64 was seven better than the next best Campbell score. Edwin Blomander and Henrik Lilja had rounds of 71.

“We should know a little bit more than other players,” said Hetherington, referencing the sheer number of times Campbell has competed in the Golfweek Program Challenge, usually played at True Blue in early September.

The Campbell men have been playing just among themselves for the past two weeks, so this competition is refreshing. His unofficial fall lineup may be the best of all, though. Campbell is one of many schools that won’t compete as a team in the fall, but players plan to tee it up in a couple more amateur events.

Interestingly, Blomander and Lilja made headlines earlier in the month when they logged holes-in-one in the same round at Keith Hills Golf Club, Campbell’s home course.

“It was my first hole in one so I almost gave up on it,” said Lilja, who had never even seen a hole-in-one live before that day.

Hetherington planned to play some amateur events over the summer, but when host families became hard to come by and COVID precautions were put in place, he withdrew. Instead, he went south to Isleworth Country Club outside Orlando and tagged along with fellow Australians Ryan Ruffels and Curtis Luck, both Korn Ferry Tour players.

“I nearly got more experience watching those guys play than even playing myself,” said Hetherington, who said many days were spent working out in the morning, playing in the afternoon then going fishing.

Hetherington caddied for Ruffels for a month-long stretch over the summer, and got in some informal competition himself. Several PGA Tour players call Isleworth home, and Hetherington won’t forget a round with Graeme McDowell.

“He was a really nice guy and he just spoke to me like any normal person,” Hetherington said. “So I’m a big fan of his now just for that.”

Having seen that next level – players that amateurs often put on a pedestal – it’s hard now for Hetherington not to think about how he and his teammates compare – especially on a day when one fired a 64.

Golf can be a cruel sport when you’re alone, but luckily that’s something the Campbell crew doesn’t have to navigate.

“Us boys are from all over the world – three countries, even four – to be together and eating together and staying together makes it a lot better experience,” Hetherington said. “It’s basically like this is the team we would travel with, we just don’t have a coach. In a way, I probably enjoy it better. We get to do what we want and then come to the course together and warm up.”

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